The United States Supreme Court has rejected an emergency petition by former Pakistan military doctor Tahawwur Rana to stay his extradition to India. Rana, a key accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, had sought a stay of his extradition to India, claiming that he would be tortured as he was "a Muslim of Pakistani origin".
Rana argued that his extradition to India violates United States law and the United Nations Convention Against Torture "because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, the petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture."
The application also said that his ˇ°severe medical conditionsˇ± render extradition to Indian detention facilities a ˇ°de facto" death sentence in this case.
On Thursday, Justice Elena Kagan of the US Supreme Court rejected the plea of Rana, who is currently lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.
Following this, Rana has filed a renewed application to Chief Justice John Roberts seeking a stay of his extradition to India.
It should be noted that the US Supreme Court has already cleared the extradition of Rana, and last month, President Donald Trump had also announced that the 26/11 plotter will be handed over to India.
Rana, a former Pakistan Army doctor who also holds Canadian citizenship, played a key role in the planning of the 2008 terror attack on Mumbai, carried out by the ISI and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT).
Rana, who used to operate an immigration business with operations in the US and Canada, used it as a cover for David Headley, aka Daood Sayed Gilani, the key plotter of the attack, to visit Mumbai and conduct reconnaissance of the targets LeT terrorists later attacked.
While Rana was not found guilty in the US for his role in 26/11, in 2013, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison there for conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist plot in Denmark and for providing material support to LeT.
For more news and current affairs?from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.